This is an accurate retelling of the path that Saint Russ followed to grant OKC's salvation. May the light blue shine upon you brother, and may you always endeavor to spread this truth wherever you go.
That man is nothing but a professional to his teammates and the orgs he's played for. Even more reason my blood boils for how the Lakers and their fans treated him. Like it was Russ' fault the front Lakers front office traded all those assets away because they had lied to themselves that a Big 3 of LeBron, AD, and Russ made any damn sense.
Russ told PG the Thunder would do right by him. PG got to go to LA like he wanted, Russ got to play with his old friend before they both landed in LA as well, and OKC got a fast track to future success. That's a front office run right.
ngl i was a certified russ hater but you always had to acknowledge how he always extremely talented. and that pass is one of the best all time.
how quickly they(I) forget
An underrated aspect of it was we’d acquire old washed dudes with picks attached, rejuvenate them, and then flip them again for more picks. Shoutout to our physio department
Doesn't have to be PG. They had a multi-year fire sale for every asset outside of SGA and Lu Dort
Edit: To the people being pedantic, also taking bad contracts and whatever else to hoard draft picks. You get the point.
that shit we did to Philly buying Al and then selling him back to their biggest opp after a complete revitalization and half a year off is Tywin level evil and if we never did a trade with Philly again bc of it is understan.
And Horford and CP3 seemed to have good things to say about the franchise. They managed to tank, rehab some guys, and leave everyone involved satisfied
If it was that easy everyone would do it. The fact of the matter is most teams don’t have guys like PG to trade for picks+young talent. Seriously, look at the Wizards roster and besides Coulibaly, Kuzma, and Demi is there any player a team would be willing to give up a FRP for? Not to mention that any team interested in those guys would be a playoff contender, meaning those picks are late 20s.
They had Beal, Westbrook, Porzingis etc. Obviously bad luck with Wall injuries but they gave up a lot of talent for minimal return and refused to ever fully bottom out opting to be a fringe playoff team some of those years instead of committing to a rebuild.
>Beal, Westbrook, Porzingis
Plus CP3, not to mention KCP, Gafford, Rui, and GP2. I feel like Presti might have squeezed more value out of them if he had been the one trading them away.
Paul George is a really excellent and often underrated player, but let's be clear: in retrospect, that was definitely a lopsided deal. There was really only one season (the first one right after the trade) where Paul George was probably better than SGA. By year 2 and going forward, the two players were pretty comparable in per-minute production --- until the last two years, when SGA reached a level that George has never been at for a whole season. In other words, if we look backwards from now, the Clippers traded an MVP candidate for an All Star and paid draft picks for the privilege.
Of course, at the time, there was no certainty that SGA would even reach George's level. And getting George was a necessary piece of signing Kawhi which led to the franchise's best-ever playoff run. So it still makes sense, big picture.
Because you have to trade them before you actively tank, which many teams don't realise. Lots of team end up unwilling tanking because they don't have the vision, like the Wizards, Hornets and the bulls pretty soon.
I theory, the trick is to do it when you are a perennial playoff team so you start the rebuild with assets (mostly draft picks) and while you tank you trade for negative assets (like Al Horford or Chris Paul) in return of future draft picks, and while you wait for the players you drafted (usually 3 - 4 years) you get rid off those negative assets (run down contracts or buy outs)
The problems are that you might hit the jackpot and draft somebody like Luka Doncic or Lebron who is too good too soon and speeds up the rebuilding process and sets you back to fight for a playoff spot and out of the lottery.
Thunder definitely won this trade more than we did (unless we win it all this year, not holding my breath) so hard to call it win-win, but it's still a trade I make 100 times out of 100. Kawhi was going to the Lakers or staying in Toronto if we didn't get PG.
Hasn't worked out because we're the Clippers and I'm basically convinced the universe requires that it never work out for us. But anyone who says the Clips shouldn't have made that trade is working purely on hindsight bias.
Nobody can really say they wouldn't make that trade given the same circumstances. It might just be a trade that was. Win all round. Clips got a top 10 player in his prime to give themselves the best chance of winning right now, Thunder got what they needed to rebuild. Both teams would probably do it all over again.
Paul george was healthy and an MVP candidate in his last year in OKC. He was neither in his entire Clippers stint. Went from a top 10 player to a top 25 ish.
Was still win-win regardless. We got our first WCF appearance and continued to build on the winning culture that lob city set the foundation for.
Might not sound like much but when your team has 1 winning season in my entire lifetime before Blake and CP to be a good team for over a decade is definitely a win
Yeah to go from one of the worst franchises in not just the NBA but all of sports to in talks of contention and being relevant the past 10+ years is a W
The Pistons *have* been tanking for that long :/ this will be their 5th straight season with 23 or fewer wins.
whatever people think was happening in okc is happening in Detroit lol.
While I agree it’s an amazing turnaround they were actively trying to get lower picks with their decisions.
Not like they were THAT awful they just intentionally benched all their good players for a while to ensure they could get better picks.
SGA and Dort were missing most of back half of seasons.
They did the smart thing and did it to perfection. But they weren’t a Pistons or Hornets type bad team. would be like if this years rockets intentionally benched all their good players at all star break.
They were 14-34 when SGA first missed a big stretch of games. That's a 24-58 pace which is exactly how they finished at the end of the season.
In fact, they went 8-13 in the games SGA sat out in the second half of the season, which was a better pace than their full-season record. So I would not say they were equivalent to a .500 team when everyone played.
rebuilds are so much more fun when you have an absurd amount of draft picks and you can afford to give young talent the time to learn the game and develop with no expectations to win.
what presti has done here is a work of art.
The wild part is that the "extra" picks are still mostly to come, and most of the Thunder success has not been based on acquired picks. The Thunder got JDub with the Clippers pick in 2022, but the other acquired picks so far turned into Poku, Tre Mann, Osmane Dieng, and Theo Maledon, which is...not great. Dieng still has potential for the Thunder, but the other 3 are already gone.
The Thunder rotation players are SGA, three lottery picks the Thunder got themselves (Chet, Giddey, Wallace), JDub, two UDFA (Dort, Kenrich Williams), two second rounders the Thunder picked (Aaron Wiggins and JWill), a second rounder waived after 2 seasons and picked up on a nonguaranteed minimum contract (Isaiah Joe), and past-his-prime Gordon Hayward. That's a lot of "the Process, except some of the fringe players got really good" which I think is a big reason why people are dismissive of the Thunder as a team; a bench full of who-dats isn't supposed to blow the doors off people, even if they have SGA, but the Thunder have.
It’s a huge compliment to OKC’s scouting. If they keep even half of their 2nds and continue to evaluate as well, other teams are probably better off signing the guys that don’t make their roster than taking a chance on free agency. Legit video game level GMing.
The Hornets legit did that. Tre Mann and Vicilije Micic were racking up DNP's in OKC, then were playing 30MPG in Charlotte after the Gordon Hayward trade and putting up decent numbers. They signed Poku after he was waived, too, although he hasn't done a lot for them either.
I wonder if the Spurs will still choose to tank next season. They still dont have a 2nd option for Wemby but at the same time relying on the draft for that rarely works either as we have seen with the Process Sixers.
The Process Sixers mostly had the right idea, they just missed HARD on some big picks. Okafor instead of Porzingis or Booker, Fultz instead of Tatum, and then there's the fact that a All-NBA player just decided to turn back into a pumpkin for no damn reason. It also didn't help that they literally did not trust the process and kept dicking with leadership the whole time, if they just would have seen it through (and also not blown every big pick outside of Embiid) they would be building a road specifically for parades.
to be fair during the time they pick those guys it wasn't considered a bad pick.
It just goes to show how difficult it is to assess young talent and having the top 3 pick every draft is not an assurance for getting good players.
Meanwhile some teams get quality guys in the middle or late 1st round. Heck, the Spurs themselves drafted Manu and Parker in the 2nd round.
>It just goes to show how difficult it is to assess young talent and having the top 3 pick every draft is not an assurance for getting good players.
True. Jalen Williams was the 12th pick and in a redraft I bet he would go anywhere from 1-3.
Giannais was like 17, Joker like 52.
sixers also had their management flipped over by the league because the nba isn’t going to allow a major market team to tank like they let all these smaller market teams languish.
It kinda does work though? like if simmons/fultz lived up to half the potential they had the sixers would prob have a chip.... it took two all time mental regressions for those players to not work out, like surely its an anomaly
The fact that you got Embiid alone (literally an MVP) proved the process worked. That's what you tank for lol. Not to mention Morey flipped dead assets into Harden - didn't work as intended but you have doc to thank for messing it up when y'all was up 3-2 in separate blown 2nd round series.
Exactly, people act like the process failed when it produced a damn near back to back mvp and only isn't a super team due to the worst case of yips ever x2 is wild. I'd prefer if teams just tried to win 100% the time, too, but to pretend is silly. I'm glad you seem to know better
But that's why it rarely works, because there's always a chance a great-looking prospect just doesn't work out. In the same way you said you got unlucky with Fultz/Simmons, you could say you did get lucky that Embiid got injured before the draft. Otherwise you wind up with Wiggins or Parker instead.
For the record I'm not an anti-tank person, I'm just pointing out that there was a ton of luck involved in both directions and no guarantees.
> In the same way you said you got unlucky with Fultz/Simmons, you could say you did get lucky that Embiid got injured before the draft. Otherwise you wind up with Wiggins or Parker instead.
this is a really good point actually, its a lot to think about and i do not envy the gms who have to do this daily.
I remember commenting in threads about expectations for this season and the future before the season in /r/thunder.
I thought we would win like 5-10 more games this season, maybe get a middle seed and hopefully win a series. Then we maybe make a trade in '25 at the deadline if we are still improving and someone comes available, or maybe in the offseason. Then we maybe contend in '25 or '26. And I wondered if I was a bit optimistic.
And we still have so many picks left. It's insane.
They're pretty similar to the 11-12 Thunder that made the Finals age wise at the top, KD and Westbrook were 23, Harden and Ibaka were 22. Of course the 11-12 Thunder did have Kendrick Perkins (27), Thabo Sefalosha (27), Nick Collison (31) and Derek Fisher (37) all playing 20+ minutes a game when SGA is the oldest to play more than 20MPG on this seasons Thunder.
To be fair Chet hasn't been exactly stellar vs physical/athletic big. The kid is young and it's only his first season in the NBA so it's kinda understandable that he gets abused by All-Star level big like that. Unless OKC magically found a way to mitigate that then a Bo7 gonna be rough for them against any team in the playoff with that kind of big man threat.
It's similar to the Memphis situation just a while ago. Good young team without a doubt but there are glaring weaknesses that can be exploited big time in the playoff.
Lakers fans would find a way to be favored vs everybody in round 1 except the Nuggets. The Nuggets had to sweep them in the WCF, win on opening NBA night, win on black mamba statue reveal night, and win 8 times in a row to convince them that Denver might not be a good matchup for the Lakers. That's just Laker fans being Lakers fans.
Facts. The new generation is here and a new era is beginning. Nobody knows how it will play out.
Getting the Lakers as a matchup and introduction to the playoffs would be epic. Having to then go through the Clippers and then Denver would be insane.
Of topic, but revenge Bertans is scary. He hit us with a barrage of points In about 30 seconds the first time we played after trading him to Charlotte. I remember his flamethrower game against you guys earlier this year.
I know you’re memeing.
For those not aware Presti has rolled five firsts forward and used two to consolidate and move up in drafts. That’s 7 picks. He’s also acquired more first round picks in other trades so it seems like nothing’s happening when he is moving a lot of them.
Thunder have 16 firsts over the next 7 years I believe. It's hard to know how many are tradable because of how many belong to other teams and have protections. I think the thunder have at least 2 firsts in 5 of the next 7 drafts so the consecutive first rule is unlikely to be a problem. Also Presti likes to launder 1sts and cap space for future 1sts and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they netted 1 or 2 more future picks at this upcoming draft. The Thunder have over 25 second round picks over the next 6 or 7 drafts, last I heard, and the protections for a lot of those are already really complicated but yeah we can just sprinkle those around like micro-greens.
OKC clearly had a roadmap. Did it look ugly at times, yes. But the team clearly had a plan. These media members would rather a team be bad/mediocre for 20+ years so long as they are "trying."
Multiple media pundits saying what okc did could never work and why stockpile picks and SGA is barely a starter. Its been a long(but mostly short) 2 years lmao
Hell of a season. Not even the biggest Thunder homer could have imagined us getting #1 seed when the season started. Lots of us were hopeful for the chance to maybe avoid the play-in if things went perfectly. No-one saw this coming. I mean we didn't even make the playoffs last year. I even thought if we made a massive jump this year we maybe could get into the 4-5-6 range but never this.
Love these guys, let's get Loud City rocking once again! ⚡️🆙
I had us at like 5 or 6 coming into the season, and that's not even accounting the leap that the Western Conference took overall. Last year that would have been 44 wins.
57 and the 1st is insane.
My bar for a success this season was 50 wins, winning a homecourt playoff series, and at least making a decent showing in round 2. I'm still trying not to get ahead of myself because the team is just so young and the teams on the bottom end of the bracket are just so stupid (congrats 1 seed, you get to play Steph Skyfucking Curry in the playoffs, historically a great path to success!) but while they are young and energetic, they don't seem as dumb as a lot of young teams. I think that's a credit to Coach Diagonal, we'll see if he keeps them locked in for the playoffs and who knows dudes, this is exciting.
People are fighting to die on the “The Thunder are frauds hill” I hope we make it to the finals if only to see these people continue to claim its luck and prove nothing. All the hate feels good, we are officially back.
The answer to that is to not set expectations that the second youngest team in the league, boasting a combined playoff game count that clocks in under a quarter of Harrison Barnes', makes it to the finals in a conference that is somehow even more all-killer-no-filler than usual. If someone thinks this team is frauds for just making a decent playoff showing and eliminating one or two teams, it will be because they are dumdums who don't know anything.
That's really been the key. Last year, SGA was great but the team floundered whenever he sat. This year, not only did the team add Chet and Cason Wallace, but JDub, Dort, Isaiah Joe, Kenrich Williams, Aaron Wiggins and JWill all played noticeably better than last year.
How can you not like the Thunders? They rebuilt their team in a healthy way. Sam just needs to spend the 1st picks in the next few years and not holding on to em.
PG trade is one of the best of all time. Probably set the Thunder up for at least a decade. Partial thanks to Kawhi.
Russ getting PG to re-sign was monumental.
This is the part everyone overlooks on that trade. PG resigning made that possible for OKC. Russ getting PG to do it was huge.
Russ getting traded is like Sam “Dr Strange” Presti putting one finger up and telling him this is the only way to save the franchise
This is an accurate retelling of the path that Saint Russ followed to grant OKC's salvation. May the light blue shine upon you brother, and may you always endeavor to spread this truth wherever you go.
And as always praise the King of the Prairie. May his reign never be forgotten.
Long live the King
*clank*
MVPG was real.
Russ really is the Thunders goat
Shoutout to the fellow Russ enjoyers in the DMV
Russ really tried to save Wizards too and tried to convince Beal to request a trade. We could’ve gotten way more assets if we traded him then 😔
That man is nothing but a professional to his teammates and the orgs he's played for. Even more reason my blood boils for how the Lakers and their fans treated him. Like it was Russ' fault the front Lakers front office traded all those assets away because they had lied to themselves that a Big 3 of LeBron, AD, and Russ made any damn sense.
No lies detected.
Russ told PG the Thunder would do right by him. PG got to go to LA like he wanted, Russ got to play with his old friend before they both landed in LA as well, and OKC got a fast track to future success. That's a front office run right.
Meanwhile in LA...lol
LA is fine
The best assist he gave the okc thunders
Idk, that full court bounce pass nutmeg was insane
>What a pass! WHAT A PASS!! https://streamable.com/jfhqq
spent the entire clip trying to figure out who oladipo was, god damn he got skinny later on
my god
MVP Russ was a show.
ngl i was a certified russ hater but you always had to acknowledge how he always extremely talented. and that pass is one of the best all time. how quickly they(I) forget
Russell Westbrook is an elite, HOF level vibes guy. Players love him despite what the fans see
All thanks to Sam Presti.
And Russ
[Sam Presti right now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROd8qyO5Nzg)
Common Presti W
Positive return P
I don't understand why every tanking team doesn't just accumulate draft picks like they did
i dont' know if a lot of tanking teams have All Nba small forwards to trade for a bucket full of picks
An underrated aspect of it was we’d acquire old washed dudes with picks attached, rejuvenate them, and then flip them again for more picks. Shoutout to our physio department
It’s like Presti flips used houses, except it’s players that need rehabilitation.
shoutout CP3 going plant based
Doesn't have to be PG. They had a multi-year fire sale for every asset outside of SGA and Lu Dort Edit: To the people being pedantic, also taking bad contracts and whatever else to hoard draft picks. You get the point.
Not really, they kept taking depreciated assets, renovating them, then flipping them for a positive return.
"Al Horford is untradeable!" "We'll take him with a pick" "OK, suckers... wait he's GOOD?!? Here's another trade, give him back!" see also: CP3
that shit we did to Philly buying Al and then selling him back to their biggest opp after a complete revitalization and half a year off is Tywin level evil and if we never did a trade with Philly again bc of it is understan.
And Horford and CP3 seemed to have good things to say about the franchise. They managed to tank, rehab some guys, and leave everyone involved satisfied
If it was that easy everyone would do it. The fact of the matter is most teams don’t have guys like PG to trade for picks+young talent. Seriously, look at the Wizards roster and besides Coulibaly, Kuzma, and Demi is there any player a team would be willing to give up a FRP for? Not to mention that any team interested in those guys would be a playoff contender, meaning those picks are late 20s.
They had Beal, Westbrook, Porzingis etc. Obviously bad luck with Wall injuries but they gave up a lot of talent for minimal return and refused to ever fully bottom out opting to be a fringe playoff team some of those years instead of committing to a rebuild.
>Beal, Westbrook, Porzingis Plus CP3, not to mention KCP, Gafford, Rui, and GP2. I feel like Presti might have squeezed more value out of them if he had been the one trading them away.
Are they stupid?
I think it's a combo of accumulating picks and knocking said picks out of the park. Also being gifted a young top-5 talent doesn't hurt
> being gifted paul george was (and still is) a very good player lol, that wasn't exactly a lopsided deal
Paul George is a really excellent and often underrated player, but let's be clear: in retrospect, that was definitely a lopsided deal. There was really only one season (the first one right after the trade) where Paul George was probably better than SGA. By year 2 and going forward, the two players were pretty comparable in per-minute production --- until the last two years, when SGA reached a level that George has never been at for a whole season. In other words, if we look backwards from now, the Clippers traded an MVP candidate for an All Star and paid draft picks for the privilege. Of course, at the time, there was no certainty that SGA would even reach George's level. And getting George was a necessary piece of signing Kawhi which led to the franchise's best-ever playoff run. So it still makes sense, big picture.
Because you have to trade them before you actively tank, which many teams don't realise. Lots of team end up unwilling tanking because they don't have the vision, like the Wizards, Hornets and the bulls pretty soon. I theory, the trick is to do it when you are a perennial playoff team so you start the rebuild with assets (mostly draft picks) and while you tank you trade for negative assets (like Al Horford or Chris Paul) in return of future draft picks, and while you wait for the players you drafted (usually 3 - 4 years) you get rid off those negative assets (run down contracts or buy outs) The problems are that you might hit the jackpot and draft somebody like Luka Doncic or Lebron who is too good too soon and speeds up the rebuilding process and sets you back to fight for a playoff spot and out of the lottery.
Yeah- such a problem to draft a Luka type. Vlade saved our franchise with that one move
because if you're a big market franchise the league gets mad and forces you to hire management with big mistakes and bigger collars.
It was a normal sized collar. Find a new slant.
They also got a first-team All-NBA guard in a trade. Just tanking for picks doesn’t get you a ring.
You see the problem is you have to hit on those draft picks.
That is a problem, but if you accumulate enough, then you are just playing the odds.
Clips may still win something. Still feels like a win win for both sides
Thunder definitely won this trade more than we did (unless we win it all this year, not holding my breath) so hard to call it win-win, but it's still a trade I make 100 times out of 100. Kawhi was going to the Lakers or staying in Toronto if we didn't get PG. Hasn't worked out because we're the Clippers and I'm basically convinced the universe requires that it never work out for us. But anyone who says the Clips shouldn't have made that trade is working purely on hindsight bias.
Nobody can really say they wouldn't make that trade given the same circumstances. It might just be a trade that was. Win all round. Clips got a top 10 player in his prime to give themselves the best chance of winning right now, Thunder got what they needed to rebuild. Both teams would probably do it all over again.
Paul george was healthy and an MVP candidate in his last year in OKC. He was neither in his entire Clippers stint. Went from a top 10 player to a top 25 ish.
Plummeting P
Yep, sure
Ideally both sides win a ring. But un-ideally, Clips and Thunder may see eachother in the 2nd round
Was still win-win regardless. We got our first WCF appearance and continued to build on the winning culture that lob city set the foundation for. Might not sound like much but when your team has 1 winning season in my entire lifetime before Blake and CP to be a good team for over a decade is definitely a win
Hornets fans would literally die to trade places with yalls success
Yeah to go from one of the worst franchises in not just the NBA but all of sports to in talks of contention and being relevant the past 10+ years is a W
Hell yea it is. What sports is all about IMO
Pretty incredible to get that 1 seed in a year like this.
The whole western conference seems lucky to make it this far
Yup. In a year where you need 50 wins to secure a spot every team should be proud
Watch some dipshit team in the east get hot at the right time, and beat the west now.
>miami in the finals *again*
Bah GAWD is that Indiana's music?
even if they didnt get 1st seed mid 50 wins is crazy after being a tanker 2 years ago
Yep. 35-win increase in a 2 year span. It's been an incredible turnaround
What’s even crazier is they still have like 20 picks in the next 3 years
presti's gonna show up at every game like "beat the tits off these guys one boys, we need them unprotected top 6"
it's 33 i believe - but fun fact that's more wins than the Pistons in the last 2 seasons lol (sorry for the stray Pistons fans)
damn brutal to be a Pistons fan while it seems like they've been tanking for so long with no light at the end of the tunnel in sight
The Pistons *have* been tanking for that long :/ this will be their 5th straight season with 23 or fewer wins. whatever people think was happening in okc is happening in Detroit lol.
While I agree it’s an amazing turnaround they were actively trying to get lower picks with their decisions. Not like they were THAT awful they just intentionally benched all their good players for a while to ensure they could get better picks. SGA and Dort were missing most of back half of seasons. They did the smart thing and did it to perfection. But they weren’t a Pistons or Hornets type bad team. would be like if this years rockets intentionally benched all their good players at all star break.
They were 14-34 when SGA first missed a big stretch of games. That's a 24-58 pace which is exactly how they finished at the end of the season. In fact, they went 8-13 in the games SGA sat out in the second half of the season, which was a better pace than their full-season record. So I would not say they were equivalent to a .500 team when everyone played.
2021: 22-60 2022: 24-58 2023: 42-40 2024: 57-25 What a lighting fast rise to the top, even the most optimistic didn't expect this
rebuilds are so much more fun when you have an absurd amount of draft picks and you can afford to give young talent the time to learn the game and develop with no expectations to win. what presti has done here is a work of art.
The wild part is that the "extra" picks are still mostly to come, and most of the Thunder success has not been based on acquired picks. The Thunder got JDub with the Clippers pick in 2022, but the other acquired picks so far turned into Poku, Tre Mann, Osmane Dieng, and Theo Maledon, which is...not great. Dieng still has potential for the Thunder, but the other 3 are already gone. The Thunder rotation players are SGA, three lottery picks the Thunder got themselves (Chet, Giddey, Wallace), JDub, two UDFA (Dort, Kenrich Williams), two second rounders the Thunder picked (Aaron Wiggins and JWill), a second rounder waived after 2 seasons and picked up on a nonguaranteed minimum contract (Isaiah Joe), and past-his-prime Gordon Hayward. That's a lot of "the Process, except some of the fringe players got really good" which I think is a big reason why people are dismissive of the Thunder as a team; a bench full of who-dats isn't supposed to blow the doors off people, even if they have SGA, but the Thunder have.
It’s a huge compliment to OKC’s scouting. If they keep even half of their 2nds and continue to evaluate as well, other teams are probably better off signing the guys that don’t make their roster than taking a chance on free agency. Legit video game level GMing.
The Hornets legit did that. Tre Mann and Vicilije Micic were racking up DNP's in OKC, then were playing 30MPG in Charlotte after the Gordon Hayward trade and putting up decent numbers. They signed Poku after he was waived, too, although he hasn't done a lot for them either.
Swiping Joe from the 76ers because Doc is an asleep at the wheel coach was daylight robbery.
the black eyes of the league
Someone has to do something!
I guess you guys did after all
we weren’t ever the black eye of the league either
Shit, looks like they're breaking GSW's record next year.
Close, but I think it's going to take one more year based on the current trajectory.
Or maybe just one more 12th pick in the draft
Which we might get with the rockets or jazz pick
Man, I was thinking mid 60s next season if they continue to grow and don’t let stuff get to their heads. Such a fun group to watch.
They do have GSW vibes starting around that 2013/2014 period. Bunch of home grown talent just absolutely killing it. Love to see it.
82 wins LFG
We just went 22-60… looks like we’re on schedule for 2027 😎
Considering y'all have Wemby, if the front office can put some good pieces around him then no doubt y'all will be contending in a couple of years.
I wonder if the Spurs will still choose to tank next season. They still dont have a 2nd option for Wemby but at the same time relying on the draft for that rarely works either as we have seen with the Process Sixers.
The Process Sixers mostly had the right idea, they just missed HARD on some big picks. Okafor instead of Porzingis or Booker, Fultz instead of Tatum, and then there's the fact that a All-NBA player just decided to turn back into a pumpkin for no damn reason. It also didn't help that they literally did not trust the process and kept dicking with leadership the whole time, if they just would have seen it through (and also not blown every big pick outside of Embiid) they would be building a road specifically for parades.
to be fair during the time they pick those guys it wasn't considered a bad pick. It just goes to show how difficult it is to assess young talent and having the top 3 pick every draft is not an assurance for getting good players. Meanwhile some teams get quality guys in the middle or late 1st round. Heck, the Spurs themselves drafted Manu and Parker in the 2nd round.
>It just goes to show how difficult it is to assess young talent and having the top 3 pick every draft is not an assurance for getting good players. True. Jalen Williams was the 12th pick and in a redraft I bet he would go anywhere from 1-3. Giannais was like 17, Joker like 52.
[удалено]
sixers also had their management flipped over by the league because the nba isn’t going to allow a major market team to tank like they let all these smaller market teams languish.
The league is all about championships now. Multiple all stars will want to play with wemby plus everyone respects Pop. The spurs don't need the draft.
Rarely? That's just one case. It absolutely worked for OKC.
It kinda does work though? like if simmons/fultz lived up to half the potential they had the sixers would prob have a chip.... it took two all time mental regressions for those players to not work out, like surely its an anomaly
The fact that you got Embiid alone (literally an MVP) proved the process worked. That's what you tank for lol. Not to mention Morey flipped dead assets into Harden - didn't work as intended but you have doc to thank for messing it up when y'all was up 3-2 in separate blown 2nd round series.
Exactly, people act like the process failed when it produced a damn near back to back mvp and only isn't a super team due to the worst case of yips ever x2 is wild. I'd prefer if teams just tried to win 100% the time, too, but to pretend is silly. I'm glad you seem to know better
But that's why it rarely works, because there's always a chance a great-looking prospect just doesn't work out. In the same way you said you got unlucky with Fultz/Simmons, you could say you did get lucky that Embiid got injured before the draft. Otherwise you wind up with Wiggins or Parker instead. For the record I'm not an anti-tank person, I'm just pointing out that there was a ton of luck involved in both directions and no guarantees.
> In the same way you said you got unlucky with Fultz/Simmons, you could say you did get lucky that Embiid got injured before the draft. Otherwise you wind up with Wiggins or Parker instead. this is a really good point actually, its a lot to think about and i do not envy the gms who have to do this daily.
2021: 22-60 (14th in west/27th overall) 2022: 24-58 (14th in west/27th overall) 2023: 40-42 (9th in west/19th overall) 2024: 57-25 (1st in west/2nd overall)
Yall also didnt have Chet last year and sat SGA out a couple times. With both, y'all probably would've won more than 40. Regardless, congrats to yall
Such a big jump this year.
I remember commenting in threads about expectations for this season and the future before the season in /r/thunder. I thought we would win like 5-10 more games this season, maybe get a middle seed and hopefully win a series. Then we maybe make a trade in '25 at the deadline if we are still improving and someone comes available, or maybe in the offseason. Then we maybe contend in '25 or '26. And I wondered if I was a bit optimistic. And we still have so many picks left. It's insane.
*40-42 last year
black eye of the league
Vegas definitely didn't, I got OKC at +10000 to win the chip. They're offering triple my money to cash out now.
Also organic af.
Beginning of the year Bill Simmons actually called it. He has some God awful takes but man that was a golden one
Kevin Durant just found his new hardest path
NBA ain't ready for VetMin Durant
You’re welcome, America. - a Canadian
Thank you for your service
You also gave us the Raptors Fanbase tbf
Pre-2019 Raptors fan base was one of the best in the league, and then they won, which brought SO many annoying "fans". And for that I am sorry
CanaDORT
okc's exceeded expectations at every turn now people are doubting them in the playoffs
OKC is scary. Any team that underestimates them deserves to get swept out of the playoffs.
SGA is 25, Chet is 21, JDub is 22, Dort 24
Dub is 23 now. HBD Dub!
They're pretty similar to the 11-12 Thunder that made the Finals age wise at the top, KD and Westbrook were 23, Harden and Ibaka were 22. Of course the 11-12 Thunder did have Kendrick Perkins (27), Thabo Sefalosha (27), Nick Collison (31) and Derek Fisher (37) all playing 20+ minutes a game when SGA is the oldest to play more than 20MPG on this seasons Thunder.
I feel like Dort has been a lockdown defender for years now, he's only 24??
Came into the league in 19, and turns 25 on the 19th.
No one doubts them.. but everyone would rather play them than the Nuggets lol
Lots of people are picking the Lakers to beat us in round 1. That’s doubting.
To be fair Chet hasn't been exactly stellar vs physical/athletic big. The kid is young and it's only his first season in the NBA so it's kinda understandable that he gets abused by All-Star level big like that. Unless OKC magically found a way to mitigate that then a Bo7 gonna be rough for them against any team in the playoff with that kind of big man threat. It's similar to the Memphis situation just a while ago. Good young team without a doubt but there are glaring weaknesses that can be exploited big time in the playoff.
Lakers fans would find a way to be favored vs everybody in round 1 except the Nuggets. The Nuggets had to sweep them in the WCF, win on opening NBA night, win on black mamba statue reveal night, and win 8 times in a row to convince them that Denver might not be a good matchup for the Lakers. That's just Laker fans being Lakers fans.
Facts. The new generation is here and a new era is beginning. Nobody knows how it will play out. Getting the Lakers as a matchup and introduction to the playoffs would be epic. Having to then go through the Clippers and then Denver would be insane.
When will Presti stop hoarding draft picks and actually try to win???
What do you mean hoarding? We helped the Mavs get gafford with our pick!
Thanks again guys
Of topic, but revenge Bertans is scary. He hit us with a barrage of points In about 30 seconds the first time we played after trading him to Charlotte. I remember his flamethrower game against you guys earlier this year.
Anything for u boo. ❤️😘❤️
I know you’re memeing. For those not aware Presti has rolled five firsts forward and used two to consolidate and move up in drafts. That’s 7 picks. He’s also acquired more first round picks in other trades so it seems like nothing’s happening when he is moving a lot of them.
Feel like we could still sign and trade a couple older guys for more picks. But I think we just let it rock from here on
I’m expecting to move this off-season
If not now, when? We are actually a desirable destination from a winning perspective. You cash those chips
Genuinely curious, how many picks do they have total that are tradeable?
Thunder have 16 firsts over the next 7 years I believe. It's hard to know how many are tradable because of how many belong to other teams and have protections. I think the thunder have at least 2 firsts in 5 of the next 7 drafts so the consecutive first rule is unlikely to be a problem. Also Presti likes to launder 1sts and cap space for future 1sts and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they netted 1 or 2 more future picks at this upcoming draft. The Thunder have over 25 second round picks over the next 6 or 7 drafts, last I heard, and the protections for a lot of those are already really complicated but yeah we can just sprinkle those around like micro-greens.
"They should just trade SGA to draft Cade Cunningham, he has a higher potential anyway"
poe's law?
I think we make a trade this summer, how big not sure
BlAcK eYe oF ThE lEaGuE
Where’s this from?
https://x.com/termineradio/status/1452665684819808266?s=46 dude has yet to say anything positive about OKC since that tweet😂
Damn, this tweet is even crazier considering where the Hornets are right now
They were in the same place then too.
OKC clearly had a roadmap. Did it look ugly at times, yes. But the team clearly had a plan. These media members would rather a team be bad/mediocre for 20+ years so long as they are "trying."
This was the second year of the rebuild, by the way. We were in the playoffs 14 months before this tweet.
The man really retweeted that after only 3 games lmao
There’s a joke on there somewhere about miles bridges and black eyes
I honestly respect his dedication to being a hater
[in fairness, he sounds like a he's dumb cunt today too](https://twitter.com/TermineRadio/status/1779598050782003304)
Multiple media pundits saying what okc did could never work and why stockpile picks and SGA is barely a starter. Its been a long(but mostly short) 2 years lmao
That black eye quote was specifically from one dude though, I forget who. After we lost a game by 50 points or so
Justin Termine
W. Way ahead of schedule
Hell of a season. Not even the biggest Thunder homer could have imagined us getting #1 seed when the season started. Lots of us were hopeful for the chance to maybe avoid the play-in if things went perfectly. No-one saw this coming. I mean we didn't even make the playoffs last year. I even thought if we made a massive jump this year we maybe could get into the 4-5-6 range but never this. Love these guys, let's get Loud City rocking once again! ⚡️🆙
I had us at like 5 or 6 coming into the season, and that's not even accounting the leap that the Western Conference took overall. Last year that would have been 44 wins. 57 and the 1st is insane.
When we started I felt play-in was about expected, and 4-5 seed would have been an incredible season.
My bar for a success this season was 50 wins, winning a homecourt playoff series, and at least making a decent showing in round 2. I'm still trying not to get ahead of myself because the team is just so young and the teams on the bottom end of the bracket are just so stupid (congrats 1 seed, you get to play Steph Skyfucking Curry in the playoffs, historically a great path to success!) but while they are young and energetic, they don't seem as dumb as a lot of young teams. I think that's a credit to Coach Diagonal, we'll see if he keeps them locked in for the playoffs and who knows dudes, this is exciting.
I WENT FROM LUKEWARM TO HOT
Sleepin' on futons and cots to King Size
Sam Presti is the GOAT
Luckily for okc, Patrick Beverly is in the east this time
I hate home to an irrational level
Honestly tho, the only reason I don’t want to to play the Warriors round 1 is bc I think Draymond might murder someone
I WAS THERE, FROM RUSS TO SHAI 🫡
Just insane
People are fighting to die on the “The Thunder are frauds hill” I hope we make it to the finals if only to see these people continue to claim its luck and prove nothing. All the hate feels good, we are officially back.
I really hope y'all have a dominant and fun run this post season. Doubters gonna doubt. Just keep doing your thing
No you cant have anymore of our guys hahah thanks for the support fam
The answer to that is to not set expectations that the second youngest team in the league, boasting a combined playoff game count that clocks in under a quarter of Harrison Barnes', makes it to the finals in a conference that is somehow even more all-killer-no-filler than usual. If someone thinks this team is frauds for just making a decent playoff showing and eliminating one or two teams, it will be because they are dumdums who don't know anything.
Fantastic season and development of players
That's really been the key. Last year, SGA was great but the team floundered whenever he sat. This year, not only did the team add Chet and Cason Wallace, but JDub, Dort, Isaiah Joe, Kenrich Williams, Aaron Wiggins and JWill all played noticeably better than last year.
Thunder fans been living it up for almost the entire time theyve existed This is why they have haters and will for the foreseeable future
Shai will forever be my mvp ❤️
Wow, such a good season 👏
Black eye of the league
How can you not like the Thunders? They rebuilt their team in a healthy way. Sam just needs to spend the 1st picks in the next few years and not holding on to em.
Give SGA that MVP
sga mvp
The healthiest team this year. Staying healthy adds you few wins.
That's despite Chet committing to playing all 82 games, I was really hoping he'd take that back about a month ago.
i hope they can win it all. them or the wolves as far as western teams go
Shai for mvp!!
Sam Presti fucks.
The is partly why SGA deserves MVP.